Paying people up to £3,000 to lose weight is more successful than traditional
diets and should be rolled out across the NHS, it has been claimed.

The founder of the controversial Pounds for Pounds scheme said that people who are paid according to how much weight they lose and if they keep it off are more successful than those on traditional diets.

Winton Rossiter, founder of Weight Wins, said dieters who completed the programme lost on average two stone, or around 12 per cent of their body weight, which was twice as much as those not being paid.

The scheme included 402 people who were sponsored by the NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent.

However some will question if the NHS should be spending money in this way, especially as operations are being banned and staff face redundancy in order to save the health service £20bn over the next five years.

A spokesman for NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent said the results were 'mixed' and three quarters of people dropped out before the end of the scheme despite the financial incentive on offer.

The programme works by adding up how much weight each participant has lost and how long it remains off for before applying a sliding scale of payments. Those who lose the most and keep it off earn the most money.

Winton Rossiter, founder of Weight Wins, which ran the trial, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with these results, which suggest that long-term financial incentives could be the best single weapon in the war on obesity. I urge the NHS and employers to adopt such schemes widely for the benefit of their patients and employees. I am so confident this works that, for our part, I am willing to guarantee results.”

In the trial, 45 per cent of participants lost five per cent or more of body weight, deemed to be medically significant, and one patient lost eight stone.

The company is opening its trial to members of the public and increasing the maximum reward to £3,000 for a weight loss of more than 10 stone (150lbs), which must be achieved and maintained over two years.

Participants pay a one-off registration sum of £45 plus £10 a month.

The Department of Health obesity strategy launched under the Labour Government suggested financial incentives could be used to encourage weight loss after similar programmes have shown some success in America.

Claire Martin, Acting Assistant Director of Public Health for NHS Eastern and Costal Kent, said: “In these challenging times we need to make tough financial decisions and make sure we are investing our money wisely and these initial findings are just part of the overall picture.

“Very often people lose weight but when they stop their diet the weight returns within a short space of time. We need to invest in programmes that return a sustained weight loss and produce long-term health benefits.

“In conclusion, there were high dropout rates and so it is very difficult to interpret the results to show how successful this would be across our population.

“Clearly it works for some people, but more research needs to be undertaken to understand the true effect of incentives on weight loss.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The Government wants people to eat well and be active as this will help them live longer. The NHS must focus on prevention to tackle public health challenges – including obesity.

"Any incentives to help people change their behaviour must be based on sound evidence.”

Two thirds of British adults are either obese or overweight and it has been forecast that this could increase to nine in ten by 2050 if no action is taken.